Global Report on Food Crises

The Global Report on Food Crises is produced by the Global Network against Food crises which also includes the World Food Programme.  This is the fifth edition of the Global Report on Food Crises and it makes some grim reading. The number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance is on the rise. Conflict is the main reason, combined with climate disruption and economic shocks aggravated by the COVID -19 pandemic.

About Global Network against Food Crises

Founded by the European Union, Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit (held in Istanbul), the Global Network Against Food Crises is an alliance working together to prevent, prepare for, and respond to food crises and support the Sustainable Development Goal to End Hunger. It seeks to reduce vulnerabilities associated with acute hunger; achieve food security and improved nutrition; and promotes sustainable agriculture and food systems. The Global Network against Food Crises works along three dimensions.

• Dimension 1- Understanding Food Crises: The work in this dimension aims to build greater consensus and to promote evidence based food security and nutrition analyses and reports in order to strengthen the collection, quality and coverage of the food security and nutrition data and analysis, and inform decision-making and action.
• Dimension 2- Leveraging Strategic in food security, nutrition and agriculture: The work in this dimension aims to advocate for financing that draws on the full range of resource flows (public and private, international and domestic) to better prepare for, prevent and respond to food crises.
• Dimension 3- Going beyond Food: The work in this dimension aims to foster political uptake and coordination across sectors to address the underlying multi-dimensional factors of food crises that includes environmental, political, economic, societal and security risk factors.

Key Findings in the Global Report on Food Crises 2021

• The number of people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above [denotes food insecurity classification]) in 2020 was nearly 20 million higher than in 2019 (134.7 million in 55 countries or territories).
• Out of the 47 million children suffering from wasting globally, 15.8 million were in these 55 food crises countries or territories.
• Out of the 144 million children affected by stunting globally, 75.2 million were in the 55 food crises countries or territories.
• Nearly 1,33, 000 people were in Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) in Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen in 2020.
• Around 208 million people were in Stressed (IPC/CH Phase 2) in 43 countries or territories.
• The three worst global food-crises the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen and Afghanistan accounted for nearly half of the total in Emergency or worse (IPC/CH Phase 4 or above).
• In these countries, The Central African Republic, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti and Zimbabwe, over 10% of the population analysed was in Emergency or worse (IPC Phase 4 or above).
• Syrian Arab Republic and Palestine are two countries with more than one million severely food insecure people in 2020.
• In 2020, Africa remained the continent most affected by food crises, accounting for 63% of the global total number of people in Crisis or worse.
• In South Asia, 15.6 million people were in Crisis or worse.
• Women and children living in food-crisis countries are especially vulnerable to malnutrition.
• Despite restrictions on movement and the closure of international borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people were internally displaced or sought refuge abroad in 2020, mainly due to conflict or due to weather related extremities.
• Major factors for food security in 2020 were- conflicts or insecurity, economic shocks including due to COVID-19 pandemic and weather extremes.

Findings related to South Asia:

• 6M people in 3 countries were in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above).
• Three most affected places are Afghanistan, Bangladesh (Cox’s Bazar) and Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

For the year 2021 the Global Report on Food Crises states that over 142 million in 40 out of the 55 countries included in the 2021 report or territories are forecasted to be in crisis or worst. With the COVID-19 pandemic still not under control, many households will face reduced incomes and the economic consequences might become more severe.